Allentown's Catasauqua Avenue shaken by third shooting in 4 nights

A young man was shot Tuesday night in the 1100 block of Catasauqua Avenue in Allentown, according to emergency radio reports.The man was taken be Allentown EMS ambulance to a hospital. A report on his condition was not immediately available.The neighborhood has been troubled by shootings since Saturday night.

A young man was shot Tuesday night in the 1100 block of Catasauqua Avenue in Allentown, according to emergency radio reports.The man was taken be Allentown EMS ambulance to a hospital. A report on his condition was not immediately available.The neighborhood has been troubled by shootings since Saturday night.

In the third shooting in four nights on the city's north side, a 20-year-old Allentown man suffered bullet wounds to both legs Tuesday on Catasauqua Avenue, according to emergency radio reports.

The man was shot about 9:45 p.m. in the 1100 block of Catasauqua Avenue, just north of Lincoln Street. A medic radioed the man was shot in at least one knee.

The shooting victim was taken by Allentown EMS to the hospital. Allentown police did not have information on his condition Wednesday.

Police Capt. Glen Dorney asked for the public's help in tracking down whoever is carrying out the shootings.

"We don't have any suspect information," Dorney said Wednesday evening. "We're still working on the investigation. We're actively putting manpower and resources to it.

"We need support from the community to provide us information on what is going on up there."

As police sealed off most of the block between Dale and Lincoln streets Tuesday night, nervous Catasauqua Avenue residents asked what is happening to their neighborhood.

"I've been living here 29 years," said one woman, huddled on her front porch with two other women, "and I've never seen anything like this. This is a nice street. [But] now every night, it's a shooting."

On Saturday night, residents said, a car was shot on Catasauqua Avenue, close to where the man was shot Tuesday. They said the car was hit seven times.

There was no shooting Sunday, but at 8:10 p.m. Monday, a man was shot in the thigh around the corner, on Lincoln Street at Fullerton Avenue. Police said the man, 25, was hospitalized with a non-life-threatening wound.

On Tuesday night, Catasauqua Avenue residents said, they heard four to six shots from what sounded like a moving vehicle. By the time they looked outside, a man was bleeding on the sidewalk.

Dorney said Wednesday he did not know whether the victim was shot from a car.

Witnesses said it sounded as if a vehicle came down Catasauqua Avenue from the north, stopped long enough for a few shots to be fired, then continued south as a few more shots went off.

Investigators placed at least six markers in the street, indicating where they had found shell casings and other evidence.

Officers with flashlights also looked through two parked cars at the southwest corner of Catasauqua and Lincoln. Each car had two punctured windows, a hole on the street side, shattered glass on the sidewalk side.

A few residents gathered on the front steps of Catasauqua Avenue rowhouses and in nearby driveways to watch the police investigation. One man said he knew the victim and was going to visit him at the hospital.

At 12:25 a.m. Wednesday, an assault was reported across Lincoln Street from where the Tuesday night shooting happened almost three hours earlier. Police had no details of the incident. The victim reportedly turned way an ambulance.

Anyone with information on the shootings can phone Allentown detectives at 610-437-7721 or text tips to the number 847411, including the word "TIPAPD" in the message.